John's Impasto User: Janet Stoppee

Artist Janet Stoppee of M2 Media Studios recently painted this Blue Ridge Mountains street scene of Sperryville, Virginia.

Janet writes:

I painted this inspired by the Impressionists. It is cloned from a shoot Brian and I did capturing our favorite tree in the Blue Ridge mountain village of Sperryvile. I used John’s Impasto Medium Gloss Varnish on a few places like the tree trunk, steps and a few other areas to give it more movement.

I really tried to step away from too much photographic detail. I used the Fan - Flat Cloner Brush and made different variations of it.

You can see more of Janet's work here

Elias Mina: John's Impasto & Smart Brushes User

Toronto-based photographer and artist Elias Mina works in both Painter and Photoshop. Eli writes, "I used your Smart Oil brush in Painter (John's Smart Brushes) and then moved to Photoshop to use mostly your brushes to paint inside and around the window. I can't make up my mind which is my favourite! I hope you don't mind me sharing with you my excitement. I am applying textures to selective part like sky, etc. and sometimes to a whole image. What a difference they make when I get it right."

You can see more of Eli's work at his web site.

John's Artists' Brushes User: Roland Saldivar

Phillipines-based artist & colorist Roland Saldivar has been using my Artists' Brushes tool presets for Photoshop CS5 & 6.

Roland writes:

I want to thank you so much for making your Artists' Brushes available. These brushes are awesome! I have never been this close to the look of Painter in Photoshop before you made these brushes available. Now, I am having so much joy in playing around with your brushes and making really satisfying digital art.

John's Artists' Brushes and Dry Media for Photoshop CS5 & CS6 are each available for $19.95. If you have Photoshop CS5 or CS6 and are into painting, this will be the best investment you can make!

If you have an image created with my brushes, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!

Moku Hanga: Outstanding Japanese Woodblock Print App

I recently downloaded the iphone app, Moku Hanga, by JixiPix Software. This app does an excellent job of emulating traditional Japanese woodblock printing. Moku Hanga is actually Japanese for woodblock. JixiPix also has iPad and Mac versions of their apps, so I downloaded the desktop version since I was so impressed with the iPhone version.

Moku Hanga handles high-resolution files with ease. I can even feed it Photoshop PSD and Canon RAW files with no problem. The app is supplied with presets for instant gratification, but is totally user-customizable. A set of paper backgrounds and edges fill out the app.

In the spirit of Japanese woodblock subject matter, I used a photo of a pagoda I shot in Sydney, Australia (of all places!). I did do a bit of prep work in Photoshop, using the Adaptive Wide Angle filter to eliminate camera lens distortion (see the original image below).

The best feature of Moku Hanga is the price: $7.99 (the iPhone and iPad versions are $2.99). JixiPix has several very nice image-filtering apps with highly reasonable pricing.

I have a feeling I'll be getting some more of these!

John's Dry Media User: Thomas Brissot

Paris-based concept artist Thomas Brissot has been using my Dry Media tool presets for Photoshop CS5 & 6.

Thomas writes:

I purchased your dry media brushes for photoshop, and I wanted to thank you. It is very helpful to me, I always looked for something that could do a bridge between Photoshop and Painter. I now can do extremely playful and fun stuff with Phosothop (and of course, if I have fun doing my work, the result is much better).

John's Artists' Brushes and Dry Media for Photoshop CS5 & CS6 are each available for $19.95. If you have Photoshop CS5 or CS6 and are into painting, this will be the best investment you can make!

John's Artists' Brushes for Adobe Photoshop CS5

John's Dry Media for Adobe Photoshop CS5

If you have an image created with my brushes, send me a JPEG and I'll feature it here on the PixlBlog!

Don't Adjust Your Display!

The above image may appear to be waving and composed of parallelograms, but it is actually made up of squares.

Akiyoshi Kitaoka, Professor, Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, studies visual perception and optical illusions. A favorite subject is the "anomalous motion illusion", in which our visual system is provided contradictory information causing apparent motion when there is none.

Check out professor Kitaoka's website for a dizzying array of visual illusions.

WARNING: Viewing these illusions might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick.